Tote-A Bag-A *revisited*

Zoe attended a birthday party this weekend. I decided the book loving birthday girl needed a library tote bag. The pocket on the front is for a library card. I'm thinking since she rushed through most gifts but stopped to squeal about her new bag and book that it was well liked! I also got a big thanks for the mom. Apparently they go to the library each Monday and check out 14 books for the week...this little girl seems to like books even more than my little reader! If that is even possible!

The following is from the original post I wrote when I made Zoe's library tote bag.

***********************************************

I sewed up Zoe's Library Tote Bag last night. She found it this morning resting on a door knob with her library books inside. I think she really likes it! Now Mommy won't have to juggle keys, wallet, books, and a certain little 2 year old all the while trying to walk down the library stairs anymore! I didn't use a pattern. I just pulled out a really big children's book and added a couple of inches in every direction then cut out two in the ABC fabric and two in the stripy fabric. I sewed up the sides and bottom on each stuck the liner in and turned down a hem added the padded handles and sewed around the top of the bag. If you noticed I turned the ABC fabric down a bit further than the other so the stripy would peak out over the top. If any of this makes sense to you you must have some sewing knowledge. If it doesn't then I am truly sorry you read my ramblings...lol. I should have taken pictures as I was making it...ahhhh live and learn.

Tote-A Bag-A... that's Zoe lingo for Tote Bag!

This post has been added to and was origianlly posted on My Zoe Bug on 9/14/07.

Crocheted

Have you seen all the amazing crocheted rocks all over? Here or Here! I love the idea of taking items out of nature and enhancing them like this!
But here was my dilemma, I didn't want to buy my rock...I wanted to find one. Being smack dab in the middle of the U.S.A. we don't get to too many areas that might have these rounded lovelies. So my rock is square-ish.

(front)

We have been heading to Osage Beach for a couple of summers now and we collect rocks when we spend time at the lake. Zoe has no sensor when it comes to this, so I have to make some last minute decisions when bringing them home. I plan to make a place for the rocks, stones, shells, etc. we collect throughout the years. But, displaying them with a 2 year old in the house right now , to me, is not a very bright idea. Hmmm...I got off track. Where was I? Oh yes, my square-ish rock. I simply made the best of what I have and guess what?!

(back)

I think I love it!

The crochet thread was given to me after my Great Grandmother passed away. I have more and am now thinking I may need to add crochet to other items....pillow cases, napkins, driftwood?!?!

I participate in Simply Designing's Link Party

Happy Hearts to You! *revisited*

I first posted about these cookies on Valentine's Day in 2008. This recipe is still a favorite. Here we cut hearts and made frosting sandwiches then dipped the edges in Valentine sprinkles. I can't say enough good things about this cookie recipe. I am not a fan of the traditional cut and decorate sugar cookie...to hard. These stay softer and taste great without being too sweet....of course that is taken care of when smothered with frosting and sprinkles :)The cookie recipe can be found here. This post has been reworded and was originally posted on My Zoe Bug on 2-14-08.

The Anytime Bunting Pattern

I made a PDF of the shapes I used to create my Valentine's Day bunting and added it here for those who, like me, do not own a do it all expensive cutting machine. Geez I would love to get my crafty little hands on one though! I based the size for this bunting on Vintage Indie's free printable for Valentine's Day and for Christmas, but it can certainly be used anytime! Embellishing these is endless! Not to mention the paper choices out there! Just print the image on 8 1/2 by 11 card stock and cut out the patterns. I made two versions. One has a single point and the other has a double point. Use one or the other or both. If you have any questions feel free to ask! And please note that this is not a fancy schmancy pattern. Nope, just hand drawn.

Anytime Bunting Pattern

And if you would rather just spell out a word you can skip printing the images. Again, endless possibilities! Enjoy!

Never too many hearts

When your five as long as it is pink or has a heart on it it matches right? Here is Zoe in her "hearts galore outfit". Her words not mine. She was never more tickled than when I bought the shirt and socks for her. I told her to put her jean skirt on with it and when she stepped out of her room I thought...nope, no way, not my daughter! Let's just say the skirt had finally become too short and the knee high socks where more like thigh high socks! She has been wearing this jean skirt for two years now. I like it because it has the shorts under it so I was determined to get lots of use out of it. Well, in my determination I thought I should just add some pink fabric with hearts on it and then it will last yet another year at least! Woo Whoo! She loves it. I love the length. Daddy approves too. Win win! She is all set for Valentine's Day!
Please note there are hearts on her socks, skirt, shirt, a necklace, and a hairclip made by mommy :)

Valentine Bunting

I have been seeing a wide variety of banners or buntings all over blogland for such a long time now I figured it was time I jumped on the bandwagon. I had started a Halloween one back in October but couldn't get it finished with everything else I had to make back then. But right now it seemed like perfect timing since I have pretty much nothing on my plate. I found the images of these sweet little vintage valentines on Vintage Indie.After I made up my pattern for all the papers they went together really easily. I added some black glitter around the Valentines and added a little red jewel towards the point at the bottom. I tied it all together with some tiny black ribbon and added the lacy ribbon on the ends for stringing up. I think I love it.

Anytime Bunting Pattern posted here.

Handyman Hayden is Two!

For Hayden's 2nd birthday we celebrated together as a family and threw a slightly bigger party for extended family the following week. I decided on a Handyman/construction sort of theme. Here are a few of the handmade items I threw together for his big day.

Invitations- original idea from here. I couldn't get the files to work so I just drafted my own patterns for everything. The paint brush was a favorite of min e because of the "bristles".

Happy Birthday banner-just paint chips with cut out letters, double sticked taped on, two holes punched and attached with string. Easy.

Door sign. I sketched it out from images of constructions signs I found on a google image search, and just added a party hat. This gave pleanty of chuckles to the adults at the party.Tool box party favors. That hold animal crackers just right. I will work up an animal box favor box pattern...soon...hopefully :)

Hayden's "2" shirt and hard hat

The cakes-cupcakes for his actual birthday and a cake for his party. I used Wilton's candy clay recipe for the yellow and green details on his tape measure cake. I also used this Cake Boss frosting recipe...Best. Frosting. I. Have. Ever. Made...yummmm.

I also tied balloons to some cones I found at the party supply store.

All in all I would say this was my favorite birthday party we have hosted. Simple and inexpensive.

Happy Birthday on New Years Eve

Hayden's birthday is New Years Eve. We spent the first half of the day celebrating him turning two and the second half throwing and I quote "The Best Party Ever!" That would be from Zoe as we danced our booties off in our living room celebrating the coming New Year. What fun! We also made homemade pretzels to go along with our junk food dinner. And since junk food doesn't really enter our daily diet around here this was a BIG treat. I highly recommend making soft pretzels with your kids at least once. It is actually pretty simple. I made the dough and she rolled and shaped and had a great time. I was even able to teach her how to braid.The only photo I have of our finished product is pretty crappy, but you get the idea. Here is the recipe we use. We bought some mild cheese sauce to dip them in too. Yum!I have pleanty to share from Hayden in all of his 2 year old goodness :) ...soon

Felt Food

In '09 when my littlest niece turned one I made her oodles of felt food. I made eggs, toast, a pat of butter, bacon, I made a complete bologna sandwich, a bag of chips, strawberries, bow tie pasta and sauce, I made a steak and broccoli, a cupcake topped with a cherry, and a candy cane(she got that on top of her Christmas gift) , AND completely forgot to take any pictures of any of it...I may have even forgotten a thing or two here. Phooey. This year I added to her felt food mostly because I never got around to making the piece of pumpkin pie I reeeaaallllyyy wanted to make for her last year. So this year I made for her...

A movie snack set- based on this tutorial plus I added a pretzel.

I love how the Hershey bar opens. I used this font for the letters. I also added some grey felt for the foil part of the packaging, plus it hid all of my stitching from the letters.

Cinnamon roll- sewed down some white yarn for the frosting.

A popsicle

And of course the piece of pumpkin pie- Which btw Hayden thought was real and kept pleading with me to give him the "cake". Once I handed it to him you should have seen the utterly confused look on his face...priceless.

No more pink

I have a niece who is getting older and is getting harder to come up with ideas for handmade gifts. This year I made a (sort of )bath set.
Bath wrap based off this tutorial, instead of Velcro I used buttons and a matching hair tie for closure. In the end I think it was still a bit too big and some buttons needed moving over.
Eye mask
Tissue holder-because I had some terry cloth leftover :)
I bought loofahs and some bubble bath to tie it all together.

Oopsie

Another Christmas gift... when I found this pattern I knew exactly who I was going to make it for. The only thing was I didn't even know if it was for a boy or girl! We welcomed 5 new babies into the world last year and these parents to be were absolutely perfect matches for this sweet little octopus. And when they found out they were having a girl and decided that the nursery decor would be an oceany under the water theme I literally squealed! I had already started Oopsie in a red, teal, and green color scheme, but when I found out about the nursery I had to start over in the nursery colors. This was my first stuffed animal. Even though I made several mistakes along the way and it is a bit wonky I still loved it and I think the little 1 month old sweetheart I gifted it to might just love it one day too.
The pattern can be found here. The only changes I made were simply skipping the cheeks and mouth. I liked it better without.

My SUPER big long project

I started this Christmas gift way back in July.
I was so very proud of myself.
Everything but a simple bag to put it is was finished!
THEN, sometime around October I went to show it off and for whatever reason the modge podge decided to adhere everything together. I had waited a week before packing it up being sure to let everything dry and not be sticky anymore.
This had never happened before!
I think I had a bad batch of modge podge.
So, after doing some sanding, exacto knifing, re papering, paint touching up, and modge podging it all over again- I still loved it.
It was ten times more work and took ten time longer to finish than it should have, but I think the Mom and Dad to the little 10 month old were pleased. Especially when they saw the little Super Hero personalized for their little "A".
I found inspiration for this project from all different places. Here and here. The word blocks was my idea- if it's already out there I have no clue.
I bought the wooden blocks and little people here and used this pad of scrapbook paper.
I tried to keep the blocks super-hero-esk (yep that is totally a word). All in all this was my favorite project to gift this year.

phew! After looking back through this post I think I should have titled it My SUPER big long post!- I just loved how all the pictures turned out and wanted to share them all :)